It's a mix of a whole bunch of things...photography (the left buildings,
the background village buildings, the clouds), 3D elements created in
Lightwave for numerous other shots (the Brooklyn bridge, that barn
thing on the right), plus a whole lot of painting over everything to blend it in and get it right.

That's pretty much how I like to work. Lot's of different techniques
at once.

Thanks, Brenton. This is actually a rain shot (seen here without the
rain element). The plate was wet down, and I painted the rest of
the shot to look wet. The patches of mist in the backgroung were
moved slightly to simulate different densities of rain in the air.
We also added a couple of lightning flashes up in the clouds during
the shot.